How to programatically create character animation? (Beginner)

Development Character & Animation
,
1

I want to programmatically create character animation in Unreal Engine. Is there a generic premade 3D character mesh to you’d recommend to start with, and any readily available scripts to make it go through motions (eg. walking, swimming etc.) ?

Thanks so much for any help!

2

Start with UE5 Mannequin. I watched Lincoln’s Videos and took his Course.

But, I'm going to approach it from a different angle, trying manual 'limb' animation techniques firstly.

Manual Locomotion (Blueprints)
Steps

  1. Create an Actor
  2. Add SceneComponent.
  3. Create a set of Keyboard/Mouse Inputs to wire up to SetTransform BP Node to control SceneComponent’s orientation (Location, Rotation, and Scale).
  4. Add a child SceneComponent to Previous SceneComponent’s hierarchy.
  5. Create Input and wire up to a Custom BP Event/Function to sequentially select Scenecomponents in hierarch to control their orientation individually via SetTransform BP.
  6. Create additional Keyboard/Mouse Inputs to wireup to SetTransform BP Node to control Scenecomponents in Hierarchy etc orientation in parallel.
  7. Repeat Steps 4 to 6 to Add SceneComponents to the Hierarchy and Control their orientation.

Essentially, I’m mimicking the hierarchal structure of a skeletal mesh using scenecomponents (this can be done with actors too). The Scenecomponents are Joints. A Child Joint connected to Parent Joint form a Bone, A hierarchy of Scenecomponents (Bones) forms a Limb. By manually controlling the orientation of Joints I can identify the orientation range between the joints to control the joints programmatically with values, curves, tables, timers.

MMO

Massive Manual Orientation:

I’m going to add multiplayer support to get assistance controlling a large number of joints manually.